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Human Trafficking: Children

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many suspected child victims of modern slavery were subsequently re-trafficked after being referred to the National Referral Mechanism in each of the last three years.

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cases of re-trafficking were recorded in the pilot child trafficking advocacy scheme.

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the National Crime Agency has made of the methods used by criminals in the UK to re-traffic Vietnamese child victims out of foster care.

Lord Bates: The National Crime Agency is responsible for the assessment of threats, including methods of trafficking by criminals. Information on this is not centrally recorded on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Data included in NRM referral forms concentrates on detail specifically required to prove the three constituent elements of human trafficking. This would not necessarily include the detail required to assess methodology used to re-traffick victims and as such does not form part of assessment reporting. The independent evaluation of the trial by the University of Bedfordshire collected data on the number of all potentially trafficked children referred to the trial, along with their characteristics including age, gender and geographical location, as well as the number of children that were recorded as missing. However the evaluation did not collect data on the number of children in the trial that were re-trafficked and it is not possible to determine how many of those children who went missing were subsequently re-trafficked.

Terrorism: Finance

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will provide an analysis of the main funding sources for those arrested in the UK for alleged terrorist activities as categorised in the 2015 European Union Terrorism Situation and Trend Report.

Lord Bates: We are unable to provide analysis for the arrests included in this report as the information is not centrally recorded in this way, and many of these investigations will be ongoing. However, the UK National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, released in October 2015, provides our assessment of the methods used to raise funds for terrorism in the UK, drawing on operational experience.

Attorney General

Mark Pearson

Lord Blencathra: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will discuss with the Director of Public Prosecutions the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to take Mark Pearson to trial for sexual assault, and the claim by the defence solicitor in that case that the CPS initially provided amended and misleading video evidence to the court.

Lord Keen of Elie: The CPS's function is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for the criminal court to consider. The CPS assessment of any case is not in any sense a finding of, or implication of, any guilt or criminal conduct. It is not a finding of fact, as this can only be made by a court, but rather an assessment of whether there is a realistic prospect of conviction and, if so, whether the public interest lies in prosecuting. It is open to the defence in any crown court case to argue, after the prosecution has closed its case, that the evidence is too weak for the decision to be left to the jury. In this particular case the judge clearly considered that the decision was properly a matter for the jury.

Human Trafficking: Children

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions have been double flagged by the Crown Prosecution Service over the past three years using the flag for monitoring human trafficking, and the flag for monitoring child abuse.

Lord Keen of Elie: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) identify both human trafficking and child abuse cases by way of a database monitoring flag applied to the electronic case record.The number of defendants prosecuted for flagged human trafficking offences where the child abuse flag was also applied are as follows: 2012-20132013-20142014-2015195924 The figures provided represent the number of defendants prosecuted. Cases of trafficking for child exploitation (particularly child sexual exploitation) can involve networks of multi-defendants who have sexually exploited young female victims. Therefore, in the relatively low numbers of cases cross flagged, a small number of additional cases in one year involving upwards of 9 to 12 defendants each will have a significant effect on the annual figures. This, in part, explains the reduction in the number of defendants prosecuted for both human trafficking and child abuse; down from 59 in 2013/14 to 24 in 2014/15.

Slavery: Prosecutions

Baroness Doocey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people have been charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in each of the past three years.

Lord Keen of Elie: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of people who have been charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur a disproportionate cost. Although it is not possible to identify the number of people charged with a particular offence, records are held showing the overall number of offences in which a prosecution commenced at magistrates’ courts. The table below shows the number of offences, rather than defendants, charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 for the last three financial years: 2012-132013-142014-15Coroners and Justice Act 2009 {71(1)(b) & (3)}Knowingly hold another person in slavery/solitude20328Coroners and Justice Act 2009 {71(1)(b) & (3)}Knowingly require another person to perform forced/compulsory labour0153Note: A single defendant may be prosecuted for multiple offences.